HDD and SSD: A Complete and Comparative Analysis

While most of you would generally identify the above sentence to be of a sarcastic nature; getting the ideal gadget is indeed difficult. Before choosing a particular laptop, there are tons of questions that have to be answered in order to get the best deal for your money. We’ll be focussing on HDD and SSD today.

We constantly are on the lookout of the best laptops in India and hence we can help you. We
will surely discuss all of your doubts. Well, what type of hard drive would you
be preferring? Did you give that any thought?

“What do you mean by ‘type of hard
drive’? Isn’t there only one?”

Wait, What? You thought that there’s only
one type of hard drive?

Allow me to answer the same!

A Brief History

Traditionally, it all started in 1956; when
IBM built the first commercial computer. The IBM 650 RAMAC hard drive supported
the functions of the same. It used 50 24 inch- wide platters to hold 3.75 MB of
storage space. Soon, people started to demand for more storage space. This led
to the establishment of Disk Storage units. They were of 52 by 72 inches in
dimension, having 26 platters.

But as time progressed, these disk storage
units did not work out- especially due to their humongous size.

It was 1968, when Memorex 630 was launched
to the market. This device was known as an HDD, or a Hard Disk Drive.

We still saw HDDs in the 80’s, as the
concept of personal computers were introduced to the public. Whilst most of the
people used floppy disks and audio cassettes for storing data, there were
people using HDDs like Rodime 1983.

Shugart Technologies (later went on to be
known as Seagate Technologies) came up with hard disk drives having 5 MB of
storage, constructed especially for the PCs. This changed the game, causing
high productions of HDDs in that time period.

Soon, 3.5-inch drives came to the market.
Finally, on the advent of laptops, the size reduced to 2.5 inches. These drives
went on to be associated with great laptops from eminent brands like HP, Dell,
Asus and much more.

In the 2000’s, along with the newer type of
laptops- netbooks and ultra-portable laptops; came another storage device-
Solid State Drives or SSDs. They became smaller as the times went on and now,
they are of 2.5 inches in size.

This means one thing- hard disk drives can
now be easily replaced by the new solid-state drives.

Now laptops and notebooks can be chosen to
be associated with either HDD or an SSD.

Key Differences between an HDD and an SSD

What do you mean to say through the entire above paragraph?

In a nutshell; There are two types of hard
drives that are in today’s day and age; compatible with your laptop. They are
Hard Disk Drives (HDD) and Solid-State Drives (SSD).

How are they any different?

Primarily, the functions of both the
equipment are the same- Storing applications and files, and booting the
operating system.

But, on a second thought, both of these
devices are very different from one another.

Whilst HDDs, are a type of a metal platter
storing data on its magnetic tape exterior, SSDs store the data in a series of
interconnected flash memory chips. They tend to be faster and more reliable
than an HDD.

Both the devices can be differentiated on
several factors:

Searching for the best fit for the on sale-laptops

Speed: As mentioned above, SSDs seem to be faster and work more efficiently. The laptops with SSDs generally boot under a minute’s time. This is because SSDs have zero moving parts and also due to the fact that it does not store data on magnetic strips. It is the same principle with gaming laptops, notebooks and personal computers.

Cost: An SSD
is much costlier than an HDD. SSDs use what you call a Negative AND (NAND)
logic gate flash. This allows the SSD to trap the data without continuous
consumption of electric supply.

SSDs have a very costly device assembly
process. Hence, they cost much more.

Duration of effectiveness: HDDs survive for a longer time. As SSDs use NAND logic gate flash
technology, they only have a definite number of write cycles. This causes a
wear in each of its transistors over time.

So if you prefer longer device
effectiveness in your laptop, HDD would be a safe option.

Capacity: Again,
HDDs have much more capacity than a common SSD. HDDs normally provide for 500
GB,1 TB, or 2TB storage sizes in laptops. While 4 TB SSDs are available, they
are very rare and very expensive in nature.

Producing Heat, Noise and Vibration: HDDs, due to their moving parts, generate quite a lot of heat when
a particular laptop is being used for long hours. SSDs draw less power, and
hence emit less heat.

As mentioned above, they can run without
continuous consumption of electricity. This keeps your laptop from overheating
and vibration-free.

Again, due to the moving parts, spinning
and clicks can be heard whereas SSDs do their work in a quiet fashion.

Availability:
HDDs still are more available than SSDs, in today’s market. Most of the laptops
are manufactured with an HDD, barring the high-end devices.

Conclusion

What should I prefer, HDD or SSD?

Well, it totally depends upon your needs.

If you like to be cost- friendly, have a
lot of storage space available, and do not prioritise the speed of the laptop,
then HDDs would be perfect to do the trick for you.

However, if you want to buy a laptop in
order to aid your fast-paced work, or want a quieter device, then definitely go
for an SSD.

What if I want both?

Laptops with both HDD and SSD for sale

Yes! That is possible! There are numerous
laptops, like Dell Inspiron I5 7570 and Acer Predator, which have both the
storage devices. You are able to avail benefits from both the sides. But the
only constraint would be the price of such laptops. These laptops are obviously
priced more than the laptops having only HDD as their sole storage device.

This idea nevertheless, would be excellent.
The laptops would be booting up three times faster, and would also showcase a
faster speed in opening of applications and pursuing other operations.

The other benefit that would be present is the abundance of storage space. The HDD would be providing the additional storage space.

No problem. Hence, if you are considering
to buy a laptop; make sure that you get the storage device that is the most
appropriate for you!

Recent Posts

Categories

Laptopedia is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.